J Natl Med Assoc
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Comparative Study
Racial differences in mortality from cardiovascular disease in Atlanta, 1979-1985.
Mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) for the period 1979 to 1985 in the Atlanta metropolitan population was reviewed for racial differences. About 28% of the population was black in 1980. Of 22,585 deaths from hypertension, stroke, ischemic heart disease, and atherosclerosis, 78.7% occurred among whites and 21.3% among blacks. ⋯ The age-specific mortality rates revealed an excess from ischemic heart disease only between the ages of 30 and 59 years and from atherosclerosis between 40 and 59 years of age for black men. This age-related crossover in females did not occur until the age of 75 years for deaths attributed to these causes. These data suggest that blacks were at highest risk for all four causes at younger age groups.
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Several observations seem pertinent when previous work is combined with the present investigation. The intermixture of the black and white races in the United States is an ongoing, continuous phenomenon. ⋯ The concept of the time at which the Duffy blood proteins of the African black was entirely Fy should probably be extended backward to an earlier date. Calculations to derive a completely negative Fy frequency should be cushioned by the fact that intermixture of the Caucasoid and black races took place before the onset of the slave trade.